


Blood Like Fire

by tomfoolery14



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Boys In Love, Demon Summoning, Immortal Husbands, M/M, Magic, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 11:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21117698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomfoolery14/pseuds/tomfoolery14
Summary: “You don’t have to do this,” Alec said for the third time, his fingers pressed hard into the inside of Magnus’ wrist. “I can do it.”Magnus offered a wry smile. “The summoner has to be the one to provide the offering, Alexander.” He looked down at their hands, thinking absently that there would be finger-shaped bruises on his skin tomorrow. “It’s unpleasant but certainly not unprecedented. These kinds of demons always require something in return for their help.”





	Blood Like Fire

**Author's Note:**

> whumptober day 21: laced drink

“You don’t have to do this,” Alec said for the third time, his fingers pressed hard into the inside of Magnus’ wrist. “I can do it.”

Magnus offered a wry smile. “The summoner has to be the one to provide the offering, Alexander.” He looked down at their hands, thinking absently that there would be finger-shaped bruises on his skin tomorrow. “It’s unpleasant but certainly not unprecedented. These kinds of demons always require something in return for their help.” Carefully loosening Alec’s grip, Magnus brought his hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles softly in a comforting gesture.

There was nothing new about summoning powerful, dangerous creatures to his home; his warding was impeccable and his sigils were meticulous after all these centuries. Offering something in payment was also not new for him in these circumstances—it was never monetary gain that they wanted, but rather something much harder to give up.

This particular demon, however, wanted something Magnus had never had to give before: his anguish.

As soon as the demon was contained, he would subject himself to _foliola desperandum_; his deepest pains and sorrows would overtake his soul and be collected once he took the tincture. He couldn’t help but think of the agony rune he was subjected to once upon a time, and the destruction and havoc it wreaked on his mind and his life for some time. Going through something like this again, he could come out of it in a million pieces that had to be put back together. But this was a choice he was making for himself, an action he was taking knowingly. _It’s different this time_, he told himself.

“Stand back, angel,” he murmured to Alec, lifting his arms in front of him with his palms down. His magic was beginning to spark at his fingertips and lick across his skin as it waited to be commanded. “When the demon is confined, hand me the glass please.” He spared one last look at him over his shoulder, and felt a settling feeling in his chest at the determined nod Alec gave him.

The incantation to summon the demon was relatively simple, a few sentences of ancient Sumerian and declaring the demon’s name, and in moments, there was a swirling blackness in the middle of the floor above an intricate sigil. A single eye, bright silver with a large pupil, looked back at him from the smoke and a quiet whispering started to slither around in his ears.

“Here,” Alec said suddenly, coming up beside Magnus with the glass in hand. Rather than being a pale gold color, the liquid inside was more of a delicate shade of pink. When Magnus looked at him questioningly, he smiled back boyishly. “I put a little pomegranate juice in since you didn’t get to finish your breakfast.”

His heart jumped into his throat like a child in love for the very first time, and he squeezed Alec’s fingers tenderly as he took the glass from him.

The burn of the herbs and spices in the tincture felt like a flame burning in his chest when he downed the whole glass in one swallow. The effects were immediate, his whole body suddenly consumed by the burning feeling, as if his blood were aflame. His eyes rolled back in his head, and the whispering in his ears grew louder.

_Give me the despair you have kept sealed away for so long._

Ragnor’s body lifeless in his arms, Camille’s knife-sharp nails digging into his skin, Mama’s body impaled on the keris. The first life of a lover that he lost to human mortality, the first life that he couldn’t save, the first life he took with pride. Fires of Edom consuming him as he descended through the pentagram, the deep ache of the void inside at having lost his magic, bone-deep exhaustion of fighting tooth and nail for his life from those who hunted him for sport.

His lungs felt as though they were being crushed in his chest, his ribs collapsing in on him. His suffering was drowning him, suffocating him. It felt like his body was being overtaken by the natural disaster he told himself he forgot was raging inside.

But then, there was a soft pressure on the small of his back that grew magnified. It was gentle and kind, and his mind grappled to hold tightly to it. “I’m here, Magnus,” he heard his angel speak into his ear. He suddenly became reminded and aware of his body and his space as he felt Alec’s lips and breath on his skin. “Come back.”

He didn’t have to get lost in his pain this time; there was an anchor irrevocably tied to him now.

_Enough!_

The whispers ceased suddenly and his vision became clear again. The black smoke that was once shapeless started to form something more solid, though still not quite a bodily form. Magnus raised his hand and sent a pulse of red-tinted magic at it, restraining the flowing movements it was making. _I’ve given my payment. Now it’s your turn,_ he hissed at the demon. He could feel it fighting the hold he had on it, but nevertheless it relented. As soon as he had gathered the information he required, he banished the demon back to hell as it released an inhuman shriek that echoed off the walls.

As soon as it was over, Magnus felt his shoulders sag and his knees buckle. He was drained, and he reached back for Alec to steady himself. “Fuck.”

“That was amazing, baby,” Alec breathed, holding Magnus’ arm steady with one hand and pushing back the loose hairs that had fallen across his forehead with the other. “You did it.”

“Told you I would.”


End file.
